Page 11 of Venom (St. Sebastian’s at Cravenmoor Academy #1)
Blake
R afferty lets out a low whistle beside me. “The pet snake has fangs. I’ll give him that.”
“He has a temper,” I correct softly, my gaze lingering on the closed doors. “It’s not the same thing. A temper is a weakness. A vulnerability to be exploited.”
The brute’s display was a crude, if effective, declaration of ownership.
But it was Venetia’s reaction that held my interest. The defiance in her eyes, the subtle smile playing on her lips as she stoked the fire between us.
She wasn’t a damsel being protected; she was a queen observing a skirmish at her gates, enjoying the violence enacted in her name.
“So, what’s the new plan, Blake?” Rafferty asks, clapping me on the shoulder. “Your charming introduction got pissed on from a great height.”
“The plan is unchanged,” I reply, brushing an imaginary piece of lint from my sleeve.
“I will offer her an alliance. A partnership. Something he could never comprehend.” Viper Stone thinks he can control her with brute force and possessiveness.
He is mistaken. He offers her a cage, gilded with his feral protection.
It will only make her more desperate to fly.
I, on the other hand, will offer her a throne next to mine.
“He will learn, as all men do, that you cannot tame a storm. You can only give it a kingdom to command, and I have one waiting.”
Rafferty snorts, unconvinced. “A throne? Some women don’t want a kingdom, Blake. They want a man who’ll burn one down for them.”
I turn from the door, my gaze cool. “You misunderstand her, Rafferty. She doesn’t want a man to burn things for her. She wants to be handed the torch.” I walk back towards the library.
Rafferty falls into step beside me, his restless energy bordering on unnerving. “So, what’s your brilliant first move? Send her a fucking welcome basket?”
A faint smile touches my lips. “Something like that.” We enter the library, the hushed atmosphere a balm after the crude display outside.
“She will be shown the power that can be wielded here, power that has nothing to do with the size of a man’s fists.
” I pause by my armchair. “And you will continue to find out who wants her dead. The fastest way to earn a woman’s trust is to eliminate her enemies.
Preferably before she even knows you’re doing it. ”
Rafferty’s grin is feral. “Now you’re speaking my language. Tag team?”
I narrow my eyes at my best friend, however unlikely that is. We complement each other. Rafferty is extremely good at what he does, and so am I. “You are proposing we share her?”
“I think she was quite amenable to taking us both on. Women like her, they can’t be satisfied by just one man.”
I raise an eyebrow. He’s not wrong. Venetia is a complex woman with complex needs. That much is obvious. “You want to be the one to give her the name,” I deduce after a moment.
“I am the one finding it. I will also be the one to take them out. It’s only fair.”
I consider his words, the crude logic of them. It’s so quintessentially Rafferty. See a problem, kill it, claim the reward. It’s effective.
“You bring her the name. You can even deliver the head in a box, if that’s what you want to do. But you will do so as part of our alliance. We have to agree that we are not competing for her. We are presenting a united front. An offer of power she will be unable to refuse.”
He nods slowly. We are on the same page.
United against the force of Viper Stone to win the princess. Unless…
“Remember the old saying, ‘You catch more flies with honey'?”
“Yeah, what of it?”
“We are going to think of Viper as a friend, someone with the same goals as us, potentially trust us, although that will probably be too much to ask for.”
“Go around him instead of through him?”
“Precisely. Let’s face it, Raff. We can go around butting up against him at every turn, and make no mistake, that is exactly what will happen. It will become tiresome for her and us. If we are able to walk in the front door, as it were, it will be better for all of us.”
“So does this mean I can’t kick his head in?” Raff asks.
I snicker. “No. Although maybe that’s your way in. Offer to train with him. Say you want to learn from the best, butter him up.”
“The best,” he snorts.
“Don’t underestimate him. He is twenty-five years old and head of the South Side gang in Manchester. He got that position through brutality and force. It wasn’t handed to him. His dad was a two-bit criminal, running rackets for Stone’s predecessor. A man by the name of Harry Quinn.”
Raff raises an eyebrow in acknowledgement of that name drop. “Stone killed Quinn?”
“Yep.”
Rafferty lets out a low whistle, a flicker of grudging respect in his eyes. “So, he’s not just some muscle for hire who got lucky. He’s a king killer.”
“He is a man who understands that power is not given, it is taken,” I correct. “You cannot intimidate a man who has clawed his way up from nothing. He expects violence. He thrives on it.”
“Doesn’t sound like he will be all that accepting of an offer of friendship.”
“That’s why we don’t offer. We let it happen by playing to our strengths. You will keep him on his best foot while he is here lounging around watching Venetia go to class and whatever the fuck else, while I offer to help him double his income within three months.”
“Well, if anyone can do it, you can. He must know who we both are.”
“I have no doubt. But if he doesn’t, we show him.”
“Well, I’m not usually a fan of your brilliant plans, but I like this one. It makes sense.”
I give him a sarcastic smile. “Thanks.”
“Do you think they’re fucking?”
“Not yet,” I reply. “But give it a few days. He won’t be able to resist her, and she will want to take him for a ride.”
“Doesn’t that bother you?”
“No, not at all. As stated, Venetia is a complex woman. There is something about a man who will smash someone’s face in if they touch you.
She will see the appeal if she hasn’t already.
After all, she was practically fucking him in his club.
There is something there she wants. We’ll show her she doesn’t have to choose between the savage and the kings.
She can have all three if that’s what she chooses.
She can have everything. This is all about her, Raff. All about her.”